Posts Tagged ‘the Regular Guy’

This morning I woke early and had some extra time to kill before going off to work, so I opened Facebook to see if anything interesting was posted. Maybe I should have looked at Instagram instead!

A long time friend of mine posted what I have copied below:

“I think I have figured out this whole #DH Thing*. Seriously he simply tapped into the less intelligent among us and has held their attention through sheer ignorance.” * (I believe DH means D@#k Head)

Well, being that I did not vote for Hillary, I am led to assume that I am one off the “less intelligent” among you all. I have to say that I thought about this all day as it played out in my mind and just needed to address how I feel about his comment.

The first thing I felt was “is this how he thinks about me?” We have been friends for some 30 years and although I rarely agree with his political views I have never crossed that line where my opinion made me think of him as less a person than myself. I can understand now, how you can lose friends over political views and why many avoid talking about the subject in mixed company let alone on a public platform like Facebook.

The second thing that crossed my mind was how divided we have all become over our beliefs as to what kind of country we should be living in. Or more so, who runs our country. I have learned one valuable lesson if any, that nothing, absolutely nothing, that our past Presidents from Carter to Trump has done, has affected my life enough that I now need to attack others because of their position. I have in the past and still do today, wake up everyday in the greatest country on Earth, in a home with people I love, with hard earned money in my bank account and at least one nice car in my driveway. My family and friends can say the same thing if they just take the time to think about life since they were old enough to vote.

I am however, not naive enough to think that some families weren’t affected by the loss of a child due to unnecessary wars that were because of things beyond the normal persons control. Yes some Presidents have made horrible decisions and we really have no way to undo what was done , but we can try by voting them out the next chance we get. But honestly, I spentÂ eight years living under the Presidency of Obama and I was so stressed out about how I felt the country was changing. But when I sat back, took a breath and really thought about my life, nothing had changed except I chose to stress over something I had little control over.

I am what I believe to be a conservative, constitutional minded,Â independent voter. I no longer consider myself a Republican, as I did in the past. What I do know is both parties are useless and if Trump was right about just one thing, our government needs to change. The “swamp” needs to be drained as he said many times. I have come to realize that it isn’t which party will do the most for the country because they could all care less about us. What has Congress done for our country that works. Social Security? Medicare? Vet benefits? Have they balanced the budget? What about healthcare? That’s the best example yet.Â They shove something down our throats and they don’t have to be part of it. They continue to enjoy their “Cadillac Plan” on us while we all worry over how we are going to afford our insurance this year.

I guess the point of all this is that when I read what my friend wrote I wonder how he doesn’t see the corruption that I see. How he doesn’t believe its both parties using our tax dollars to grow our government larger than ever to keep them in their cushy jobs. Does he not see how they all have career jobs and they don’t have to solve one problem? They aren’t accountable to anyone anymore. How is he not as angry at them as he is towards me and those who voted differently than he did.

I really don’t see how anyone, democrat or republican, can honestly think their party is better enabled to fix this mess. They all created it. And that is what take me to my last point.

I voted for Trump. Unfortunately I voted for the idea and got Trump. Do I believe he is the be all and end all? No, absolutely not. In fact I wrote a letter to him prior to the election expressing my feelings about how he speaks to others and carries himself. No I am not proud of how our President presents himself. But I didn’t vote for Trump as much as I voted to end the bullshit that goes on in Washington. I voted for a person who did not spend his entire life living off tax payer dollars. I voted for a man who like it or not grew a business and through that business gave others the opportunity to earn a living. I voted for the Constitution. I voted for what America was supposed to be and what our forefathers meant for it to be. You see, I can talk politics with anyone who respects my right to an opinion and doesn’t call me names because of it. I don’t have to agree with you but I do have to respect how you feel, that is if I expect to be your friend.

My friend says hes a proud Liberal. What exactly is that? I am guessing that Robert Deniro is a proud Liberal too! How does anyone in this country respect that man after what he said about the President of his country? If this was done to Obama it would have been on every network and Deniro would be blackballed from Hollywood. Just check out Roseanne if you don’t believe it. Is this what we have come to. When I speak to Liberals about Obama’s vision of America and why I didn’t agree with it, I am called a racist. When I vote for Trump I am called ” less intelligent”. So to be a Liberal I guess I would need to turn cheek to others who don’t agree with my views then insult them as I walk away. I sure hope Liberals enjoy each others company because soon enough they will be the only ones that will hang with them.

This Great divide isn’t just because of its people, its because of its politicians. They are dividing us and the great many of us are like sheep just following along. This is what they feed on. They divide us, keep us off balance with crap that doesn’t matter while all the time the deceive and lie to us. When will the people of this country wake up and stop being angry with each other and turn their focus to all the people who have been playing us for decades. To hold them accountable and jail the ones deserving of such. The Ryan’s, Pelosi’s, Shummer’s and like all need to go because each time one loses their seat, our great divide gets that much smaller.

After 48 years of frustration and agonizing defeats, I sat and watched for what I swore to myself would be the last time, as my Minnesota Vikings were seconds away from yet another heartbreaking lossâ€¦.

There are few great playoff come from behind wins in the NFL. The Minnesota Vikings, MY ( I feel I have the right to stake claim to a small part after this long) Minnesota Vikings, have no such victories during their many playoff appearances. But as of this past Sunday, all the old excruciating losses can now be put in the rear view mirror, because we finally broke the curse.

Diggs Minnesota Miracle catch

In a span of ten seconds, my thoughts of leaving behind my Purple Passion for this team vanished almost as quickly as the thought set place in my mind. In those ten seconds, what will forever be called the Minnesota Miracle, made me and millions of fans remember just why we bleed Purple and Gold.

I remember just one other time in my life, when such an event took place and I had similar thoughts of walking away from my favorite baseball team. Down to one strike and a World Series on the line, the New York Mets drew another breath, when all seemed impossible and a series loss looked inevitable. Then too did I swear I would never again put myself through a season of joy only to sit in despair when my team went through one more ugly loss when it mattered most. But just like this past weekend, they pulled it out in â€œAmazinâ€ fashion and made me a believer once more.

I have been a Viking fan since my dad told me they were called the Purple People Eaters way back in January of 1970, when they appeared in their first of four Super Bowls. Since that memorable first impression I have watched (although almost impossibly back then without streaming) as many games as I could. I listen now to Minnesota sports talk radio on a regular basis ( thanks you IHeartradio) and canâ€™t help but enjoy the always entertaining Paul Allen, who does the Viking broadcasts and like so many of us, is a diehardÂ rube.

Over the years I have watched some great Viking teams and dozens of Hall of Fame players perform at a high level and set seasonal records but never get that Super Bowl title. There are three very bad losses we sat and watched in the NFC championship round, all of which we were favored to win. This week we finally got one back from the New Orleans Saints who robbed us of a Super Bowl visit back in 2009, when Brett Favre threw up an interception that cost us the game.

This week like last, weâ€™ll be favored to beat the Philadelphia Eagles but like most Viking fans , we donâ€™t believe any game will ever be easy or sure thing. So Iâ€™ll sit back in my chair one more time, stress over the chances we wonâ€™t have something crazy go against us, and for those last few seconds of the game, pray we finish off the birds. No more drama and last minute Hail Mary passes (which phrase was coined after a loss by us to Dallas in 1975) but maybe a good old fashioned hard played win to get us into a home game Super Bowl. That in itself would help erase years of frustration..GO VIKES!!!

Inauguration day is upon us and as some might now believe, so too is the collapse of America.

Eight years ago I began a journey of hopelessness and despair at the thought of Barrack Obama becoming our President. After years of forming a doomsday opinion of the direction in which our country was heading I wake up today in not such bad shape after all. I guess you could say that I learned a very valuable lesson after watching this round of the Presidential process.

As most Americans do during the election years, we stress over the fact that our candidate might lose and with that how our lives will never be the same. Our Constitutional rights will be trampled on. Signs on our public bathrooms will never be quite the same. Tax on the internet. The list goes on and everyone of us takes up issue with something on opposition’s card.

We have grown more and more divided with each passing election and this past years process, has done little to change that. Friends and family members have cut tiesÂ or at the very least argued right and wrong, while standing up for their choice. I can say from experience that a few people “unfriended” me on FaceBook because of my beliefs. It’s quite common, that when two people are expressing different views, that the conversationÂ gets heated.

There aren’t many things in life that create such fervor as politics. And why do we all feel as if the end of life as we know it is right around the corner each time we elect the opposite party of our choice. Not everyone and probably more people than I care to think, don’t give a second thought to who runs our local government let alone our country. Most people who vote do so because they have strong opinions and feelings about how this country should look, whether that be more liberal or conservative, and fewer and fewer of us find a way to the center.

As I follow more along conservative lines of belief, I find it harder and harder to vote since no one who has recently run, has represented such. So it is has been that which such conservative beliefs, that I stressed so mightily over the past decade or more waiting for my preferred choice for president. That being said, I remain in wait, hoping that someday my wishes will come true. But now as the imaginary darkness that loomed over me all this time, I breathe a sigh of relief, albeit a very small one.

As I sat and watched history unfold, this time I heard the same doomsday predictions coming from the Trump opposition as I did from the anti Obama camp in the past. Even last night at a party I attended, I was called one of the “idiots” because of the way I voted. Funny I found it to be, because the person who said it wasn’t even American. This person who resides in the great white north, has a very strong opinion of America and it’s political system. She is not alone though, as many Canadians follow very closely the goings on in America, because so much of what happens here affects their own way of life ( the value of the dollar for instance).

So now its my turn to watch as so many get stressed over what may happen in our great country. But if one stops and gives thought to their life, the majority of us will see that with allÂ that goes on in Washington, not much affects us as we believe it will. That’s not saying that all the little changes will not one day change this country. The have and they will continue to do so. Hopefully we will continue to elect the opposite of status quo every 4-8 years so nothing will ever drastically change the face of this nation.

One thing that should anger most if not all Americans, is the lack of “real “change that every politician promises. Our inner cities are worse than ever, the highest murder rates in history being recorded. Our food we eat is poison and yet our own government continues to allow this to happen. Medicine and health care continues to be an issue asÂ does Social Security, while all the time politicians are not affected by such. So when then is enough enough already. Is it now? Did we elect someone from the outside who will really blow up DC and rebuild it for and by the people as promised? Or are we just on a different hamster wheel surrounded by smoke and mirrors and filled only with illusions of better days ahead.

I for one, am done with thoughts of the looming doomsday. I will no longer let politicians and DC dictate to me how to live my life. I will slide by quietly and look only for the best of what America has to offer. As I traveled last year with two friends by motorcycle across 9 states, I learned that not all of America is what politicians and the news media proclaim it to be. We are not as divided as we might be led to believe. The average working class American doesn’t care what color or ethnicity you are as long as you treat them with the same respect you would want for yourself. We all just want our little piece of the American dream and to be left alone to enjoy it. The people of this country is the best of what America has to offer.

America was built on the freedom of choice and the rights to express these freedoms. As long as we don’t lose touch with that and learn to respect others rights to such we will never have to face the end of the world as we know it. Things, as some say, are never as bad as they seem at first glance. Given my last decade of experience in waiting for the hammer to drop, I can say that this statement is true. Life after elections go on and as long as that sun comes up every day we all have something to be grateful for.

I am a 57 year old white male who grew up middle class without a spoon in my mouth, and worked for all I have today, who believed since I was old enough to say my first pledge of allegiance, that this country was special.

I am writing to you today because I am one of the millions of people who you speak of that no longer have a voice in this country. I have been watching since the first Bush was president, how our country was being slowly changed right before our eyes. No longer was it special to be American.Â Corporate America and our elected officials have been moving this country away from the working class to form a country run by and for the elite. The worst part of it all is that the press, who were supposed to be the eyes and ears of people, were no longer telling us the truth.

After years of disbelief in what I was seeing politically, especially the last eight years, I believed this country was changing forever. No politician will ever change what has been going on because it suits them not to. This is why McCain, Romney and the rest donâ€™t want any part of what you are saying. It would make no difference to any in Washington, if we lose our Constitutional rights, our borders that are sieves or if racism is ever addressed honestly.

And then you came along. It was like all my thoughts were finally heard. You spoke candidly and honestly about our country and how it is headed away from all it was built on. The open borders, the politicians taking millions and doing what the corporations not the people wanted and last, all the corruption.

I watch you religiously now and I have to say that I am worried about your approach and how you sometimes move off the issues to respond to the press and Hillary Clinton. No one knows better than you that the press will never change how they come after you so why then, do you continue to point this out? Everyone who believes in you already knows this. Everyone who is deciding to vote for you is tired of hearing it. They feel youâ€™re thin skinned. It makes no sense to remove yourself from the issues because itâ€™s your strength. Youâ€™re giving the left and all who doubt you the ammunition they need to defeat you.

I watched you speak at the podium in Mexico and also the last four times when you addressed only the issues and your plans for how you will fix this great country. You spoke like the President we all know you can be. That is the Donald Trump we all need to see day in and day out. You donâ€™t need to convince your faithful, you need to convince your doubters!

Ronald Regan once gave a speech â€œA Time for Choosingâ€.Â It was and remains today one of the finest speeches about being American and what it means, that was ever written. It reminds me of today and the challenges we are facing not from Communism but from the divide in our own country. Â This divide is breaking up America from within and to heal it, is a challenge greater than any. Our country has lost its way and our leaders are allowing it. I know they are not stupid people so the only other reason it could be is intentional.

You are our voice. You are Americaâ€™s last hope at restoring our countryâ€™s values, safety and pride. This country is on the verge of electing a liar, thief and perhaps the most corrupt representative America has ever known and the press and the people are letting it happen.

So today I ask you for this Mr. Trump. Keep showing us President Trump. Speak of â€œwhenâ€ you are elected, not â€œifâ€. Stay on point as you are so right about all you speak of about America.Â Stop fighting the press, Hillary and the Republican Party who we all donâ€™t believe in anyway. It makes no difference now what they say, only what YOU say. You have reached the millions and millions of Americans that have been praying for someone who they can believe in again. Ronald Regan did this without throwing stones, so to can you. This country needs you now. It needs to heal and be one America like never before. The days of old politics can finally Â be behind us. Thank you, Mr. Trump for doing this for us and for America.

Kim is at it again. Another naked selfie. Anything to get attention from social media I guess but what I feel when I look at that is disgust

I don’t consider myself a staunch conservative but maybe the older I get I might have to reconsider my thinking. I just can’t help but wonderÂ why we have, as a country, come to this acceptance of such immoral behavior from our ” children”. Yes, Kim is someones daughter and as a father, I can’t imagine how a parent could accept such behavior from a child of theirs. I know shes an adult but when is enough enough? Has it come to how much attention someone can garner is more important than self respect. I have seen pictures of women tastefully posing naked and maybe I could even see the potential art in her last pic but it wasn’t done for such reasons.

We as a society used to hold our children to higher standards and expect that they wouldn’t shame the family name. How any father could be proud of his ” little girl” for posing naked for social media is beyond me. Is there nothing she won’t do for attention? I know her dad has passed on and maybe if he were still alive she might have grown up differently. God only knows shes not getting any good advice from MRS JENNER!!!

â€œYou have half our gifts. I the other. Together we make a whole. Together we are much more powerful.â€ â€“ Joss Stirl

Do I believe in “soul mates”?Â I believe in the possibility that they can exist. Not by chance but by cause and effect.

Do I think that by some random chance there is someone out there that is the best possible person for me? Not really. Do I believe that there is someone out there who COULD be the best possible person for me? Yes I do.

I don’t think a soul mate has to be left to chance. I believe that if you become open to who the person you are with is, you can become their soul mate. I know that if I spend enough time paying attention to the person I am with, I could become her soul mate. If I knew all her crazy quirks and played along to them. If I listened to her stories instead of texting while she was telling them. If I bring home the milk for her tea when shes out, without her asking. If I know she is angry and doesn’t need advice but just an ear to bounce it off. In time, I would be her soul mate.

I believe that if I were to do all the little things we often overlook, and even if she didn’t notice, someday she would look back and say she met her soul mate. Knowing what she wants before she asks isn’t esp its just called paying attention. There are so many little examples every day that occur that we can take a note of and bank for later. Favorite foods. Clean shaven face. Holding doors. Walking next to not in front of her. As some one once said ” its the little things that add up”

We don’t have someone out there who is waiting in the wings, that knows all these things. They take time to learn and then nurture into something that matters. Its all the small stuff that amounts to why someone stays in a relationship. It’s the things that make you feel loved. That make you feel like you matter. That make you feel like life wouldn’t be as good without her. The things that only two people share that they feel just from being in the same room together. The stuff you can’t pay for or fake. It’s the real things that only come from a connection, a bond , shared by two people open enough to accept into their life. There is something about being human , in our DNA, that allows us the chance to bond eternally, if we are open to it

What makes it so hard to have a soul mate is “it takes two to tango”. You can’t be someones soul mate without them being yours. Won’t work. Nope. So if you go about your life trying to do all the little things and get nothing in return, it won’t happen. Nada. Ziltch. Zippo.That is where the connection comes from. Both people need to open their hearts and minds to each other. And for that to happen, you would need to make your relationship the most important thing in your lives.

The real challenge is wanting and working for a soul mate, not searching or waiting for one.

“To enjoy good health, to bring true happiness to one’s family,to bring peace to all, one must first discipline and control one’s mind…..If a man can do this he can find the way to enlightenment and all the wisdom and virtue will naturally come to him…”- Buddha

My young friend Samantha had an assignment in school, to find a quote of Buddha’s and discuss what it meant to her. She then asked me to comment on it.

Our minds are funny things. We can convince ourselves of basically anything. Some people believe we can cure illness by thoughts alone. I’m not quite sure about that one but I do believe we can control, in our mind, our happiness. A great deal of what makes us unhappy is comparing ourselves to others. At the earliest part of our lives we are judged by how we look. Later by the jobs we have. Sometimes by the friends we share. But most of our unhappiness lies in how we perceive ourselves in our OWN mind.

Free the mind of all the clutter in our lives and its easier to see the reasons to be happy. Health. Safety. Freedom. Liberty. Family. The key is to focus on the good things in life, the hard part is doing so. We all have a problem with living in the moment, so much so that most people can not even carry a true conversation anymore. Most people are so in a hurry that what you have to say isn’t important. If people would listen more than speak, they would find a lot of interesting things are said which in turn might bring some form of happiness to their lives.

Controlling your mind, as in the thoughts we have, is a lot harder. I find myself stuck in a rut at times and actually have to force myself to think happy thoughts to get out of it. Its easy to fall prey to feeling sorry for yourself about something and then not being able to shake those feelings. I think the key to it all is to wake up everyday and make a conscious effort to think of something good about yourself or your life. Try to look past the little things that get stuck in your head that drive you nuts. That’s what I think Buddha meant by controlling your mind. If you can blank out the things that get in the way and replace it with a good thought it just might become contagious to your happiness. “Don’t sweat the small stuff”. How many of us fill our day doing just that.

Clearing your mind from all the things you can’t control will make room for all the things that will bring happiness. How many times do we drive to work and not know how we got there? It happens so often that we’re so predisposed that we blank out life around us. This in turn doesn’t allow all the good things to come in. The colors of the sky. The pattern of the raindrops on your windshield. The first bloom of spring. All the things that we should be happy and grateful for in life that we no longer are aware of.

Find a way to live for today, in the moment as they say. Concentrate on the positive in your life. Laugh. Laugh more. Your alive so be happy!

These three short sentences tell you a lot about the direction of our current government and cultural environment:

1. We are advised NOT to judge ALL Muslims by the actions of a few lunatics, but we are encouraged to judge ALL gun owners by the actions of a few lunatics. Funny how that works.

2. Seems we constantly hear about how Social Security is going to run out of money. But we never hear about welfare or food stamps running out of money! What’s interesting is the first group “worked for” their money, but the second didn’t.

3. Why are we cutting benefits for our veterans, no pay raises for our military and cutting our military force levels — e.g., the Army — to a level lower than before WWII, but we are not stopping the payments or benefits to illegal aliens.

Are we missing something??? Do you think this man and his cronies really care about this country and theÂ direction in which we are headed?

Anyone that knows me can tell you I am a Batman fan. This guy named Blake Wilson created some crazy funny videos as Batman. Watch the attached Youtube video and you will see why he’s gone viral with these clips…

Blake Wilson is fighting bad manners dressed as the Dark Knight and the Vine videos he made to capture his superhero lessons have gone viral.